An experienced provider will be sought in the very near future, with expertise in serving the encampment community and those sleeping in our streets for a Mobile Wellness Center will serve the target population with a menu of customizable support services The primary service areas will be as follows: Food & Hygiene; Benefits Enrollment & Service Navigation; Trauma-Informed Wellness Services; and Enrichment & Community Services.
$2,802,400 has been allocated from the Mental Health Services Act to fund a peer led community based organization which will provide services directly in the encampments to support people’s mental health through wellness and recovery supports. This amount is for 5 years for operations.
The unhousedpopulation has significant needs: 41% reported a disabling health condition, with 28% reporting chronic health problems. Just under one-half (42%) reported a psychiatric or emotional condition, 32% reported a substance use disorder, and 31% reported Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Services provided through this project should support wellness in creative ways, without assuming that psychiatric or clinical interventions are appropriate for, or desired by, everyone.
After extensive involvement of the community, receiving feedback at every level of developing this project purpose and its design the city is close to issuing the Request for Proposals (RFP). Staff person Karen Klatt of the Division of Mental Health wrote the initial documents and coordinated feedback from various interested members of the community, impacted people (individuals experiencing homelessness and people living in area homeless encampments) and Community Based Organizations in addition a small sub-committee of experts was created which worked for over a year with Ms. Klatt whose patience and expertise is to be admired for working with a diverse community of stake holders and creating a project which is based on consensus that the need for these services is critical.
In addition, an important piece is to increase new learning in the mental health field through short-term strategies or pilot projects that will either improve the access, quality, or outcomes of services, and/or promote community.
Specific services to be provided will be chosen by and based on the needs of individuals living in encampments and others. In addition to hiring individuals with lived or adjacent experiences of homelessness, the wellness center will compensate individuals who reside in encampment communities in Berkeley to support the services. The project will include an evaluation and a “Community of Practice”comprised of program staff, consumers, community advocates, and city leaders who will meet on a regular basis to create a learning space to exchange insights and tackle challenges related to the wellness center project.
The chosen contractor will purchase a Mobile Van that has been equipped with both private space for one-on-one meetings as well as open areas for group activities.
The chosen contractor will be mandated to collect and analyze demographic and programmatic data and provide ongoing reporting to the City on agreed upon data elements and outcomes. Additionally, the chosen contractor will conduct an evaluation to understand the potential impacts of the project on consumer outcomes.
Partnering with people with needs and those with lived experiences will be at the center of this project. This approach is critical in seeing if a peer approach is more successful in engaging people in such a way that they are able and want to access traditional mental health and other social services. There are many in the encampments who might be seen as service resistant through building trust and relationships over time engage in the services they need.